The Artwork for Tournaments Thread

Art Co-Leader

--Artwork for Tournaments--
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS TO HELP MANAGE THE ASSIGNMENT LIST... PLEASE SEND ME A PM IF YOU'd LIKE TO HELP; I'M A LITTLE TOO OVERWORKED RIGHT NOW TO MAINTAIN THIS THREAD ALONE! MANY THANKS! - ZRACKNEL

Hello! Let's get right to the point, Smeargle's Studians: I need your help. Even if you cannot draw, or even if you've never posted before, I need your help.Read on.

For the past few eons, I've been doing artwork for Smogon's tournaments. It hasn't been a super-consistent thing, and boy golly gee willikers has it been unorganized. Users generally just ask me for stuff and I try to get it done in time. Sometimes it works out fine, but other times it's miserable and tragic when I can't pull through.

But there's no reason why it should just be me taking these things on. Anyone who wants to help should be able to. So that's where this thread comes in: there are tons of tournaments in need of artwork, and I want to bridge the gap between those who can benefit from this kind of help and those who are capable of doing it. Artwork for tournaments. Let's make it happen.

Can you lend a hand?

Here's a few things I'm NOT looking for:

- You do not need to be a pro artist or anything close to that. That said, this artwork will be used to represent the site. Lots of people join our tournaments without an understanding of what Smogon is or what we do. Tournaments, for many users, are a gateway into our community. Let's do our best to make a good first impression.

- You might know me as that guy who does logos. You do NOT need to do logos to help (but they are certainly welcome).

- You do not need to be a typography ace to help. You do not need to use typography or lettering AT ALL. Cool images are more than enough. If a tournament absolutely needs some cool typography to go on top of an image you've made and typography is not your thing, I'll probably do it. Images are way more important.

- You also do not need to finish work to post it in this thread. PLEASE flood this thread with WIPs, sketches, scribbles, discussion, helpful critique for others, and feedback if you can. The goal is that we have cool stuff when all is said and done, and we are in this together. No need to spend a million hours refining something you're unsure of. When in doubt, share early, share often.

- Following that, you do not need to work alone. If you'd like to collaborate with another artist or artists (doing lines, colors, effects, or anything else) you are invited to do so as long as everyone involved is cool with it. Artists who would like help, please feel free to link to your documents in this thread.

- You do not even need to do your own artwork. Read this section carefully.

Smogon has a lot of committed and lovely artists who have done a lot of excellent work over the years. If you've got some photoshop skills and want to marry some of that work to some cool typography or effects, you have my blessings and encouragement.

HOWEVER, pay attention, because there are a crapload of rules for artists not using original work:

- The golden rule: permission is a must. If you don't have permission, I don't care how eye-popping the final result is-- it isn't going to get used, period.

- If you're pulling images of pokemon from anywhere, they gotta be from here. Only artists who have made an art thread in smeargle's studio are elligible for you to pull from. Additionally, any pieces in question must have been posted here on our forums (so no pulling from other sites or any of that). When you post work like this, you MUST link to the post(s) your source image(s) came from. If you don't, I promise I will punch you.If I find out you don't have permission, your post is getting deleted and you risk an infraction. I'm serious, don't do it.

- You will get credit for doing stuff like this, but your name is coming second. The original artist is going to get the lion's share of the credit for this type of thing, so don't be surprised.

- You will be held to completely different standards when it comes to the possibility of being badged. Expect it to be significantly more difficult. Just putting that out there.

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Rewards

There WILL be rewards for helping out. If you don't have an art badge and contribute enough of the stuff that we're looking for, I will fight to get you a badge.

If you already have a badge, consider that most tournament threads get hundreds if not thousands of views. Talk to me and we'll see if we can't promote your work further in some way.

If you contribute thoughtful, consistent, and experienced critique that can help our artists improve (both in this thread and elsewhere in the studio) you might see yourself nominated for a community contributor badge.

If you do work that we end up using, expect me to treat you like a champion. Your name will be emblazoned in gold letters in this thread forever. We will collectively be one step closer to me not crying myself to sleep at night.

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So that's our introduction. Now for the assignments.

Earthworm and the tournament organizers have hooked me up with the rules and a suggested art direction for almost every tournament that is currently in the tournaments queue.

NOTES:

- Art direction is NEVER set in stone; if you have a better idea than what's listed, you are encouraged to do that instead.

- That said, keep in mind the tournament's organizer is going to have a voice when it comes to selecting artwork in the case of multiple submissions. The other voices will consist of me and other willing studio mods and tournament directors who wish to participate. We'll be choosing among any pieces submitted, and we may very well use multiple pieces of art that are submitted!

- Deadlines on these are wild, unpredictable beasts. Tournaments go up after other tournaments end. Tournaments end when people play their matches. People play their matches when they feel like it. A lot of these tasks have no concrete due date but will include some kind of estimate for when work is needed by.

- If you want to help, please do whatever you want to do, but just keep in mind I'll be sweating bullets and freaking out when I see urgent assignments not getting done, so if you feel like it, please consider starting there.

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MASTER ASSIGNMENT LIST*
(*OUTDATED; PLEASE INSTEAD SKIP TO THE END OF THIS THREAD FOR RECENT ASSIGNMENTS... THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING... -ZRACKNEL)

The most urgent assignments are listed first. The other assignments are listed in the order that I received them.

"Format" Refers to the basic format of the tournament, but please read the tournament rules for details!

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Tournament Name: UU All Generation TournamentHost:AuraRayquazaProject Priority:FINISHED (I will update this soon. -Zracknel)Format: UU Multi-Generation; See belowTournament Rules: "Each round a certain generation is picked and all battles will be done in UU of that generation. The last 4 will do their rounds as a best of 5 in all UU generations."Art Direction: "i was thinking something like having a blastoise with sprites from all 5 gens and having a *cool* background. im no good at that kind of stuff so if you could come up with some ideas that would be great."

Zracknel: the tournament host also pointed out that blastoise has been UU in every gen... would you say that blastoise is at least usable in every UU?
Earthworm: he must be usable in gen 5
Earthworm: it is definitely usable in gen 3
Earthworm: and i think gen 4
Earthworm: i suspect it would be rather bad in gsc uu
Earthworm: rby hes probably "ok"

Tournament Name: BW2 OU Team TournamentHost: FireMageProject priority:This tournament no longer needs artwork(I will update this soon. -Zracknel)Format: BW2 OUTournament Rules: "Players are put into teams of 5 and are at risk of being subbed out if they lose - substituting is mandatory unless they all win - They must get their new member from the opposing team."Art Direction : "Ideally a group of 5 trainers (I'll leave it up to artists discretion if they base them on trainer classes / protagonists or if they want to make them generic) holding their hands over a Pokéball like a Football team would before a game."Current Submissions: None yet!

Tournament name: the Monotype TournamentHost:Espeon65Project priority:This tournament no longer needs artwork(I will update this soon. -Zracknel)Format: BW OUTournament Rules: This tournament requires entrants to have an entire team of pokemon that share a single type-- dual-types are allowed where applicable. However, there's a twist: Espeon65 will privately contact all entrants to the tournament prior to battle and inform them of the type they have to use. Entrants will have to build their own teams well-- and prepare for the unknown types of their opponents.Art Direction (courtesy of Espeon65): "Maybe a team of 6 pokemon of the same type, or 3. Or maybe two teams of differently-typed pokemon battling. If anyone has another idea, they can use it, too."

Tournament Name: Random Pokemon Tournament VHost:RodanProject Priority:NormalFormat: BW2 Special; see belowTournament Rules: "think of it like the battle factory [where you are given random pokemon from across tiers, unevolved pokemon as well] but instead of picking 3 out of 6 [like in the factory] you pick 6 out of 7"Art Direction: "my idea for the banner would be a version of me; either human or pterosaur drawing pokemon names from something like a hat or a bingo spinner or something "(pictures of Rodan can be seen here.)

Tournament Name: Home Field Advantage IIHost:DubbyProject Priority:This tournament no longer needs artwork(I will update this soon. -Zracknel)Format: BW2 Special; see belowTournament Rules: "My tournament allows the "home" player (each player is PM'd their schedule at the beginning of the season) to choose the tier that is to be played. The standard 3 that the away player cannot reject are BW OU, BW Ubers, and BW UU. The home player can suggest to play a different tier, but the away player must approve as well. So yeah, no specific tier is involved.Art Direction: None Specified

Tournament Name: NU: Back to the FutureHost:DjangoProject Priority:This tournament no longer needs artwork(I will update this soon. -Zracknel)Format: NU Cross-Gen Special; see belowTournament Rules: "this is a best of three tournament involving BW2 NU, DPP NU, and ADV NU"Art Direction: " for potential ideas, anything involving the movie Back to the Future would be neat, and likewise a few key Pokemon from each tier (ADV NU - Flareon, Hitmonchan, Tangela. DPP NU - Charizard, Gligar. BW2 NU - Braviary, Amoonguss, Golurk. If you want any more information just let me know."

Tournament Name: 2012 Tournament TourHosts:FireMage, Django, SethZiBritanniaProject priority:NormalFormat: Special, see belowTournament Rules: This tournament is a revisit of some of the Tournaments of 2012-- each round will be a match taken out of a different tournament from the past!Art Direction: "Here's the list of tournaments. I'm quite content for the artists to have free reign over the art direction. See what they can do with it!"
- The EO's Propostion Tournament
- The Helping Hand Tournament
- The Single Pokémon Tournament
- The Unscrupulous Tiering Director
- Tournament of Thieves
- The Adherence Tournament
- Mirror Match
(I'll make sure these link to past tournaments when I get the chance-- in the meantime, please see the Tournament Listing for details on these tournaments)

Tournament name: FUK FERRO TournamentHost:IconicProject priority:Low (we have some submissions for this tournament right now, but feel free to submit others if you'd like)Format: BW UBERSTournament Rules: This Tournament is pretty straightforward: regular BW Ubers, except Ferrothorn is banned!
(You may choose to omit the profanity from this tournament's title if that's not your thing)Art Direction: None Specified

Tournament Name: #Pokemon TournamentHosts:mostwantedProject Priority:FINISHED (Artwork Went up Sept 8th, 2012)Format: BW OUTournament Rules: Prior to this tournament, visitors to smogon's #pokemon IRC channel created a pool of 24 teams to be used for the competition. Each round, competitors in this tournament are given a choice between two teams randomly selected from the pool to use. The options available to them are public, as are the options of their opponents. Competitors are highly encouraged to use the #pokemon channel to discuss and prepare for battle, so IRC plays a crucial role in this tournament.Art Direction: None SpecifiedWinning Submission(s): Bummer

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Tournament Name: Pass the Trash IIHosts:Steven Snype, MithrilProject Priority:FINISHED (Artwork went up September 14th, 2012)Format: BW OUTournament Rules: Pass the trash is a variation of a poker game in which two players swap one card/Pokemon without knowing what the other player has.Art Direction: "Something like the yugioh card 'exchange' or a pokemon trade is what I have in mind for concept art"Winning Submission(s): DragoniteKnightOther Submissions:Rocket GruntEagle4

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Tournament Name: The Tournament of GoodfellasHost:UmbyProject Priority:FINISHED (Artwork went up September 18th, 2012)Format: Multi-GenTournament Rules: This is a RBY/GSC/ADV 3-man team tournament. Three players, each playing a different generation, face off against other teams of three players.Art Direction: "I named it after the movie, Goodfellas, so some sort of gangster theme would be choice." Extra Art Direction shared by Bummer in this post.

Winning Submission(s):

Bummer

Bummer & elcheeso

Juicy Fruit

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Tournament Name: Black/White 2 Walkthrough TournamentHosts:RBGProject Priority:FINISHED (Artwork went up Oct 6th, 2012)Format: Special (see below)Tournament Rules: This is a walkthrough tournament: each round will restrict competitors to only using items and pokemon that are available at a certain point in the game. Each round the restrictions will change as the competitors progress, mimicking a play-through the main game of black/white 2.Art Direction: None SpecifiedWinning Submission(s): ScepticallisticOther Submissions:Juicy Fruit

Tournament name: Offstat TournamentHost:Level 51Project priority:FINISHED (Artwork went up Oct 20th, 2012)Format: BW OUTournament Rules:
(a) Each of your Pokemon's two attack stats must have a difference of at least 50 between them (e.g. Scizor is allowed, Zapdos isn't), and more importantly,

Tournament Name: 3-mon TournamentHost:ChielieeProject Priority: FINISHED (Artwork went up Oct 21st, 2012)Format: BW OUTournament Rules: "It'll be much like the Battle Tower, where instead of 6v6, the games are played 3v3. Pretty simple"Art Direction: "I've been thinking about having one big mon hold two smaller ones. of course, these must all be somewhat competetive and it'd be great if they fit in the same playstyle. Another possibility is to depict a battle scene, with three mons on each side, much like a triple battle. Even though it's technically not correct, i think it'll be nice or something idk"Winning Submission(s): BummerOther Submissions:Furosuto

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Tournament Name: ADVanced Users OnlyHost:McMeghanProject Priority:FINISHED (Artwork went up Oct 28th, 2012)Format: ADV (Gen III) Multi-TierTournament Rules: "My tournament will be an ADV Bo3 tour. The players will play in UU, OU and Uber."Art Direction: "My request is pretty simple, using a artwork each round picturing one Pokemon of each ADV Tier, using the red, blue and green color (Ruby/Saphir/Emerald).Winning Submission(s): elcheesoOther Submissions:DragoniteKnight

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Tournament Name: Stat Specialization Tournament IIHost:yaya0Project Priority: FINISHED (Artwork went up Oct 30th, 2012)Format: BW OUTournament Rules: "The tournament is 'standard' OU, but the gimmick is that each round, a specific base stat is chosen and the only Pokemon allowed during that round are those whose highest base stat is the one chosen."Art Direction: None SpecifiedWinning Submission(s): Scepticallistic

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Tournament Artwork Scoreboard!

I want to keep track of everyone who has made a completed submission so far, and everyone who has had a victorious submission!

Victory points are awarded to artists whose work is used for a tournament!

Submission points are awarded to any artist that makes a completed, non-WIP submission for a tournament!

In the case of collabs, all artists involved share victory and submission points.

Scores are henceforth updated whenever submissions are closed for a tournament.

Time will tell if these are good rules. I'll change them if they aren't working out.

- Don't reserve stuff. If you want to do something, do it. You are encouraged to post sketches and roughs, so please share as many as you want to.

- If someone did something and you think you can do better, do it. You aren't a dick for doing this. There are no hard feelings. Our ultimate goal is cool tournament images, and literally every effort helps, even if it doesn't feel that way.

- The judging committee (if you can call it that) will pick artwork judged to be best at the deadline in the case of multiple submissions. It is definitely possible for more than one piece of artwork to be chosen to represent a tournament!

- If, on the other hand, nobody does artwork we can use for a tournament, that tournament doesn't get to have artwork. Smogon's attack stats will decrease. I will cry myself to sleep another night.

- Participate as much as you want to. If you want to do artwork for every single tournament, then you're insane, but you're also my hero.

- Ask questions in this thread if you have them. Either I or someone else will answer them.

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Thank you for reading! My deepest thanks to anyone who participates in this project!

Art Co-Leader

What are the suggested dimensions for these images? Smog art is usually kept within 600x400 pixels, or are thinner images generally preferred (banners etc)?

Edit: Linking to earlier tournament art could also help, either for inspiration or to get an idea of what people want.

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Excellent question, bummer-- knew I was forgetting something, haha

Tournament artwork gets posted here in the forums, and while it's meant to be a focal point of the threads it's posted in, huge images will be a bother for people to scroll through.

After a little messing around with what looks good to me, I'd say try not to go bigger than ~800 x 600 pixels if you can help it. 700x500 actually looks better to me, and 600x400 also looks great. Smaller sizes are totally fine as well, but let's try to avoid stuff smaller than, say, 300x200 pixels. Different cases may call for bigger or smaller artwork for some reasons, so this isn't hard and fast rule or anything, but I'd say let's aim in that ballpark.

- Don't reserve stuff. If you want to do something, do it. You are encouraged to post sketches and roughs, so please share as many as you want to.

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Just go for it and have fun with it! From my discussions with Zrack, it sounds like multiple people can work on the same piece of artwork. Just post when you have a WIP or rough draft or even a final draft!

Art Co-Leader

Just go for it and have fun with it! From my discussions with Zrack, it sounds like multiple people can work on the same piece of artwork. Just post when you have a WIP or rough draft or even a final draft!

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I am a huge sucker for collabs, so yes! Don't be shy about sharing your stuff if you'd like to collaborate with other artists.

Moderator

Man Zracknel, why'd you have to post this today? I have lots of (RL) work to do but now I have an idea for the Goodfellas tournament that my brain is demanding I draw. You'll be hearing from my lawyers, sir!

Here's a sketch that I did for the forgotten year tournament.
Don't worry about the size of it. Once it's finished I'm resizing it to half of this size. I'm thinking of adding a dragon symbol behind it with a pokeball surrounding it. But how do the pokemon look? Any suggestions?

Art Co-Leader

K since Bummer requested it, here's my half-arsed sketch for the goodfellas tourny. Full size because that's how I roll.

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Wow, I'm super pumped we're already posting sketches in this thread, I can't even say how much :)

I have to step in and use elcheeso's WIP (which I think is a super cool concept) to share something I've learned the hard way doing tournament artwork for a while, and that's about meeting player and community member expectations.

Simply put, I think we have to be very careful when we choose pokemon that are going to visually represent a tournament on the site.

I say this specifically because I see what looks like an ampharos in your WIP, elcheeso. Looking at the g/s/c tierlist, we see that ampharos is BL at best-- is ampharos going to be used by any serious GSC player? I personally don't know-- but is it worth the risk? While as a pokemon ampharos might be iconic of the second generation, don't forget that our audience is comprised of some of the most cutthroat competitive players out there. They might not understand or appreciate that you've chosen a less competitive mon to represent their generation-- and yes, they care deeply about this sort of thing.

While you are welcome to roll ahead with your piece as your sketch indicates, I'd gently suggest considering some other mons for your scene-- tauros is right on the money being the all-time most-used pokemon in RBY OU, but be sure whatever else you choose for your piece are things you're willing to stand behind.

My work in the tournaments forum gets flamed constantly when it's not meeting player expectations. Even very recently, when I made the choice to use Blaziken to represent the Ubers Open in the Smogon Grand Slam, I was reminded how quickly people will jump down your throat about this sort of thing... It's also no fun watching people tear your work apart on IRC, asking why the world's most competitive pokemon site is showing non-competitive pokemon xyz. It was an outrage among staff a while back that electivire was on our site's front page, for example...

I really don't want to see any of us get flamed or accused of not understanding our audience :(

Sorry to pull your work out as an example, elcheeso! And I'm really sorry if it sounds like I'm being picky or critical or splitting hairs-- I personally like what you've got going on so far. But I think this point is worth consideration for anyone who wants to contribute artwork for the site's tournaments-- let's be sure we're giving weight to what our competitive player base wants to see!

Moderator

Ah thanks Zrack for getting this up and running, I'm super excited to see it all getting going! I'll try and get some art up in my spare time, and in the mean time anyone who wants to use art from my thread in banners and stuff is welcome to :)

So here's my Entry for the Goodfella's tournament. Text is just there to show, I'd ask you to sort out some proper typography if you could Zrack since i'm not too great at it. I chose an OU poke from each of the gens being used (I think).

Sorry I know cheeso already posted one but i was half-way through this when I saw it.

Based it off this poster I found of the film and changed the style a bit.

i saw the pass the trash thing and the concept idea and tried to roll with it...i'm not on my pc so I don't have photoshop access atm so I drafted it up on a free sketch program but it'll probably follow this kind of look

(i know it's not transparent)

it was meant to look like a trade but i'm not sure how that all turned out. thoughts?

i saw the pass the trash thing and the concept idea and tried to roll with it...i'm not on my pc so I don't have photoshop access atm so I drafted it up on a free sketch program but it'll probably follow this kind of look

(i know it's not transparent)

it was meant to look like a trade but i'm not sure how that all turned out. thoughts?

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Looks great. Just a thought but maybe blue arrows going alternate directions instead of the smudges would help to signify the idea of a trade happening more?

Art Co-Leader

I PM'd Umby about some questions since the details still left me undecided about what to portray, so here it is for everyone to read.

fat Umby said:

fat Bummer said:

- Will pokémon from all tiers be allowed, or just one in particular? (I assume OU)
- If it's tier restricted, will the pokémon from each gen be based on the tiers in the latest gen (ADV), or each gen separately? (Gen I OU, Gen II OU etc)

If you also have any suggestions or preferences of what pokémon you'd like to be seen in the banner, do tell.

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The tournament format will have each player on a team playing in each OU tier (RBY OU, GSC OU, ADV OU), so only Ubers are disallowed.

Though, if you're asking of what Pokemon I'd like to see in the requested art...I'll leave that to the artists' imagination. Even if the focus is OU play, I wouldn't mind seeing (as an example) a Shiftry as the representative for ADV if it fits the theme. An idea that I have, though is not mandatory, is using one each of the top Pokemon in each gen's respective OU tier. So, some combinations for that could look like:

- Tauros - RBY
- Snorlax - GSC
- Gengar - ADV

- Alakazam - RBY
- Marowak - GSC
- Celebi - ADV

- Exeggutor - RBY
- Tyranitar - GSC
- Swampert - ADV

As you can see from the first set of Pokemon, with this idea, the choices wouldn't necessarily have to have been introduced in their respective gen, if that makes sense.

It doesn't have to be limited to three Pokemon. If there's a scene or particular movie art from Goodfellas that you find intriguing go nuts with it.

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I was planning to work on Goodfellas, but with the attention that tournament has gotten I may take a swing at Pash the Trash instead. Either one or the other. Will have to wait 18 hours before I can start cracking though.

More WIP of the image for forgotten year tournament! I am pretty much finished with the mons unless you guys have any other suggestions for them? After I do some touch ups I will begin working on the background.

Moderator

I say this specifically because I see what looks like an ampharos in your WIP, elcheeso.

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Yeah, I agree with what you're saying, but... this is part of the reason I don't like posting my sketches in public, lol. It's actually a Flygon. As far as I'm aware, all these 'mons are OU for their respective gens and ones that were also released with that gen. Tauros, Lapras, Umbreon, Heracross, Swampert and Flygon. I'll admit though that the only one I know is ridiculously overused is Tauros (which is why he looks like such a douche), so maybe some of the others could be replaced even if Umby is cool with that sort of shit. IDK.

Btw Furosuto, while your pic looks fine, I'd really recommend going over the shaded and highlighted areas again without using the dodge/burn tool (I'm assuming that's what that is). Using those is usually a bad idea. Also you seem to have some weird markings/smudges surrounding both 'mons.

I'll try that out elcheezo. But how does the tournament banner look so far?

I added a background with texture and a pokeball in the background, and made my own title. I don't know if this is the final product though. Are there any suggestions on what I should add to the banner?

I'll try that out elcheezo. But how does the tournament banner look so far?

I added a background with texture and a pokeball in the background, and made my own title. I don't know if this is the final product though. Are there any suggestions on what I should add to the banner?

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First off, either get rid of that background pattern, or heavily increase its transparency. Since your front figures doesn't have any textures or finer details, a complex pattern like that doesn't mix too well, if at all.

Since they're also cartoonish drawings, the shades and light relfections could be much sharper/harder, and not as soft as they currently are. This may not be an urgent shade, but I've found that softer shades are better for images with no clear lineart.

The pokeball in the back is competing with Latias for attention, as they're both the same color. You could set its colors and lineart to different colors or blending modes which makes it blend better with the backround, while keeping the focus on the two pokes up front.

And in regards to the text ..... you might wanna stick to fonts other have crafted for now. Dafont.com is a site filled to the brink with free fonts, so take a look around to see if there's anything that fits your image.

The Goodfellas movie poster typeface is Bodoni Poster Compressed; but it's got some slight edits. I recreated the typeface in vector, added some Eurostile to the top, and extended some of the ligatures to help it feel more balanced.

Anyone who wants to use this is more than welcome to! The photoshop file should be a bigger size than it needs to be so that it scales down well. Use it if it appeals to you!